Guilt
by Tasha9315
Summary: James Sirius Potter (James II) had stolen his Harry Potter's invisibility cloak and managed to put it back before his father noticed it was gone. However, the guilt of what he had done begins building up inside of him.


**This is for the 2017 House Competition held by MoonlightForgotten.**

 **Round 10**

 **House: Gryffindor**

 **Category: Short Story**

 **Prompt: Guilt**

 **Word count: 986**

James Sirius Potter looked at the new iPhone that he had just received from his parents for his 12th Birthday with tremendous guilt. This feeling was intensified when his father said that he was proud of him. He had an uncomfortable twinge in his stomach that he didn't deserve the gift. James had stolen his father's invisibility cloak over Christmas break for one of his pranks. The Marauder's map was with Teddy whom he convinced to join in his prank (It was rule that the map would be with the oldest Marauder descendant at Hogwarts). The map would be passed down to James once Teddy graduated from Hogwarts.

The cloak was kept in Harry's safety locker. After a few tries, James rightfully guessed his father's locker combination was 273060, a combination of his Grandpa James and Grandma Lily's birthdays. He had conveniently put the cloak back in his father's locker when he came home for his Easter holidays. His Birthday fell during the Easter holidays, 2 days after Easter. It was all too easy as Harry didn't even notice the cloak was gone, and to James' good fortune, he never checked his locker or had a need for the cloak while the cloak was with James.

Nevertheless, it did not ease the throbbing pain that James felt in his stomach. He had stolen from his own father. At the time that he committed the crime, it didn't seem so bad and he convinced himself that he was just borrowing it and that it was supposed to be his one day. But after the thrill had worn off, he was filled with nothing but a painful guilt.

Getting away with his deed only made James feel worse. Although his father had always come to expect mischief from him, he knew that his father trusted him not to cross certain boundaries. He had breached that boundary and broken his father's trust. At last, he couldn't take it any longer. He didn't deserve his father's trust. The only thing he could do to ease his guilt was to come clean and confess his misdeed to his father. He was prepared to face whatever consequences that would befall him. After what he had done, the least he owed his father was the truth.

James stood outside his father's study and reached out to knock on the door for the fourth time, but pulled his hand back again. This was harder than he thought. It wasn't so much the trouble he would get into that was holding him back, but the disappointment he would cause father. But he had to get it over with. He took a deep breath and reached for the door a fifth time with a determination and knocked on it.

"Come in," came Harry's voice.

"Dad … I … umm … have a confession to make," said James, while fidgeting with his messy black hair, a habit he had when he was nervous.

Harry looked taken aback by this. James understood why. This was the first time he had willingly confessed to anything without being coerced. He usually tried to shove the blame of his misdeeds on his brother and sister, though his parents usually knew it was him. His father eyed him carefully.

"And what might that be?" asked Harry.

James launched into the story of how he took the invisibility cloak for one of his pranks and returned it before Harry had noticed it was gone. He said this all really fast that he was out breath by the time he finished.

For a long time, Harry just sat there, processing the information, before finally getting up to approach his lookalike son. James braced himself for whether his father was going to yell, punish him, or never speak to him again. Harry looked into his brown eyes which were the only facial feature that he inherited from his mother. His eyes were filled with a mixture of fear and guilt.

"James, you stole from me. Of all the mischief you've pulled, this is something I never thought you'd do," said Harry.

Harry didn't sound angry, but disappointed and hurt. James wished his father would yell at him in anger instead. He hated seeing his father disappointed and hurt.

"I'm really sorry, dad," said James ruefully, with his head held down, unwilling to look at Harry's emerald green eyes.

Harry put a hand on James' shoulder.

"James, look at me,"

James hesitantly dragged his head up to look his father.

"As disappointed as I am that you stole the cloak, it takes a big man to admit his mistake and I'm proud of you for coming clean about it to me," said Harry.

"Really?"

"Yes, but that doesn't make what you did any less wrong," said Harry, rebukingly.

"I'm sorry. I promise to never steal from you again, dad," said James, earnestly.

"Not just from me, you promise not to ever steal from anyone?" asked Harry.

"I promise. I won't ever steal from anyone again," said James. "Though I make no promises about mischief and pranking. It's part of my nature,"

"I figured I was signing up for mischief and pranking when I named you James Sirius. I myself was not mischief free at your age," Harry shrugged. "But you, young man, are not free of punishment,"

"I knew that was coming," said James, bracing himself.

"You'll be going back to school tomorrow, but for the first two weeks of your summer break, there will be no Quidditch or iPhone for you," Harry said in his best non-nonsense voice.

James gulped. It was going to be a tough two weeks.

"I guess that's fair," said James.

"What's important is that you learn your lesson," said Harry, ruffling James' hair.

James was glad that he confessed his crime as it felt like a burden had been lifted off him. Even his two weeks of punishment felt well-deserved.

 **A/N: In this story, it deliberately left it open to interpretation, so that James' mother could be either Ginny like in canon or Hermione (if you're a Harmony fan) as James is mentioned to have his mother's brown eyes (both Hermione and Ginny have brown eyes). But since his mother could also be Ginny, this story is still canon compliant.**


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